Hannibal season 1 a gourmet horror treat on home video

The NBC horror-thriller series "Hannibal," begins some time before "Red Dragon," Harris' first book in the lexicon of the infamous Hannibal the Cannibal. Season one is available on DVD and Blu-ray today (Sept. 24, 2013). Season two will begin sometime mid-season.

No one can resist pulling up a chair and napkin at Hannibal Lecter’s exquisite table — least of all the characters in the engrossing NBC series inspired by the Thomas Harris thriller novels.The series begins some time before "Red Dragon," Harris' first book in the lexicon of the infamous Hannibal the Cannibal. Show runner Bryan Fuller wanted to explore profiler Will Graham, a character who had not been fully formed in any of the five Hannibal movies."In the movie he's stoic, in the book he's more neurotic," Fuller says in a special feature included on the Blu-ray release of "Hannibal" season one, available today (Sept. 24, 2013).FYI: “Hannibal” airs on NBC. Season 2 is scheduled to return mid-season. The first season of “Hannibal” is available Sept. 24, 2013, on Blu-ray and DVD.Graham (Hugh Dancy, "Black Hawk Down") is a highly intelligent teacher at the FBI Academy at Quantico, Va., who is drawn into the investigation of a series of young women’s disappearances. He falls into the autism spectrum, which makes him socially awkward, but with a unique ability to empathize — too deeply — with killers, making him extremely valuable to investigators.His supervisor, Special Agent-in-Charge Jack Crawford (Laurence Fishburne "The Matrix"), pushes Graham to keep working on cases even as it becomes apparent that Graham is becoming unglued.
Crawford sends Graham to a brilliant psychiatrist, Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen "Casino Royale"), for evaluation and counseling as the plot — and the Cumberland sauce of red fruits — thickens.Based loosely on “Red Dragon,” the series counts on its audience being familiar with “The Silence of the Lambs,” the sequel to “Red Dragon” that also was a blockbuster 1991 horror film starring Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal.Dramatic irony builds tension as the audience already knows Hannibal to be a complex bon vivant with a refined palate and a taste for human organs. He’s also a skilled manipulator of people, who amuses himself with mind games.Although it airs on a broadcast network, “Hannibal” is humorlessly dark, filled with of gore and violence, not suitable for the squeamish or impressionable. Yet, it is finely executed and riveting."You would think it would be great for cable, and in fact it would fit perfectly at cable, but also the networks are starting to wake up," Executive Producer Martha De Laurentiis says in the featurette "Hannibal Reborn," included in the three-disk Blu-ray set. "They have to compete with the cable channels and they have to be edgy and they have to attract the audience back to their channels. NBC was willing to take the risk at 10 o'clock."Fuller says he hopes his "Hannibal" will be "the definitive Hannibal Lecter story.""We wanted 'Hannibal' to be as elegant of a horror show as the character is a human being. We wanted elegant horror — that was our mission.""Kids in the Hall" alumnus Scott Thompson plays CSI Jimmy Price, an unusual role for the comedian, and guest stars in season one include comic Eddie Izzard ("Valkyrie," "Ocean's 13") as an incarcerated serial killer and Gillian Anderson (“The X-Files,” “The House of Mirth”) as Lecter’s psychotherapist, Dr. Bedelia Du Maurier.This show is decidedly dark, dense and refined for those who’d rather be suspended than shocked. That’s not to say there aren’t any number of oh-my-God moments to spare.The DVDs also include an unaired episode — held back from television following the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary, which brought a story of killer children too close to the bone — and unrated “producer’s cut” episodes as well as commentaries by cast and crew, four making-of features of about 10 minutes each and a gag reel — the only comic relief in this tense drama.

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At The Oakland Press since 1988, Nicole M. Robertson has covered city councils, schools, police and courts and worked the copy desk. In charge of Arts & Entertainment, only motorcycling is more fun. Reach the author at nicole.robertson@oakpress.com
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